A Memorable Mother's Day
by something-like-love
Summary: Fridwulfa shares a last day with her son, Rubeus Hagrid.


**A/N: This was a contest entry for the Hideaway- write about a memorable Mother's Day. Hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: Yes, I own Harry Potter. I am a rich Britian mother writing fanfiction. That's not unlikely at all. **

It was a cold, bleak day. The calendar read 18 March, but it felt more like the middle of December to Fridwulfa. The enormous woman sat on an even larger rock below her house that resided on a lush green hill. Her head was bent and her knees drawn to her chest. She stared at the horizon, where the very beginnings of the dawn could be seen through the grey clouds. That was how she felt right now, that the dawn was coming, coming closer every second...

Today she would break the news to her husband that she was leaving to return to her people. She knew he would understand, though it would surely break his heart. And Rubeus, little Rubeus. She could hardly bear to leave her child without a mother, but he would see with time that it was the best thing for him. How would he feel when he went to Hogwarts and the other children ridiculed him for being the spawn of a giant? It was better to pretend his size was some spell gone awry and make sure no one questioned his parentage. She would return to her homeland and reproduce with another giant, and breed children who would never know of their half brother living on the heart of Wales. As she thought this, her eyes became blurry with tears, and she quickly wiped her eyes. It would do no good to weep, for tears could not undo the damage she had already created with her half-breed son.

Suddenly, Fridwulfa heard a crunching sound behind her, and turned her head quickly, then relaxed, then tensed. It was Rubeus, plodding down the hill in his brand new yellow boots (he had picked them out himself), crunching fallen leaves on his way. This would probably be the last time she saw him...

"Mumma!" he called, quickening his pace to reach her. "Mumma, look what I made for you!" His voice held dear, childlike excitement, and Fridwulfa's heart sank even deeper at the sight of her precious boy. Rubeus finally reached the great stone rock, and held his arms up to be lifted to his mother's lap. She did so willingly, taking extra care not to swoop him up too high, and cringed. When she left, that wouldn't be a problem...

Rubeus dug inside the pockets of his yellow slicker (it had animated drawings of werewolves on it, something he had loved) and pulled from the depths a small, crumpled piece of paper.

"Here Mumma," he said, holding it out to her shyly. Fridwulfa took the miniscule paper in her large, cumbersome fingers, and realized quickly that she could not hold it in her hands without crushing it immediately. She handed it back to her son, still watching anxiously from her knee.

"Why don't you read it to me?" she asked slowly, speaking his native English. Her husband had insisted Rubeus be fluent in English.

"Okay!" the young boy agreed happily, and smoothed out the paper before holding it close to his eyes and scanning it. Fridwulfa smiled, remembering her husband's many long reading lessons with Rubeus, and how they had generally ended with one new word being learned, primarily words like 'hat,' and 'mat.' He would have had to help Rubeus with this, for sure.

"I," her son began, with the same slowness of speech his mother used when speaking English instead of her more fluent tongue, Giant. "I... love...you...Mumma." When he had finished, he held out the card again to her, and Fridwulfa saw that he had drawn and coloured a crude red heart in the middle of the childish letters.

Her heart melted. She couldn't leave, she couldn't, she couldn't leave her dear Rubeus without a mother! It was the cruelest act she could commit, abandoning her family in favor of the ancestry she had always hated. It would be torture, pure torture. Fridwulfa looked again at her small boy, and realized he wasn't that small after all. Though he was only five years old he was already four feet tall, and nearly as wide. He was a half-giant, that much was obvious. But, what happened when the others began to question, began to realize that Rubeus had a giantess as a mother? His life would be a slightly less pleasant version of hell, that was for sure.

"I love you too," she whispered, and brought him to her face, where he kissed her cheek for the last time.


End file.
